


Fell From The Sky

by Bam4Me



Series: Like A Broken Angel [1]
Category: Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man - Fandom
Genre: Adoption, F/F, Gen, Gonna Have Sequels, Howard Stark's Good Parenting, Howard is a good dad, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rhodey is 19, Seriously thats not sarcasm hes a good dad in this one, This was NOT meant to be H/J but it turned into it and i did not know what to do, Tony Feels, Tony is adopted, Tony was Iron Man before he remembered being Iron Man, Tony-centric, Whump!Tony, tony is 17
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 11:51:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6050578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bam4Me/pseuds/Bam4Me
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things didn’t go as planned, Howard Stark knew that. But he did know one thing, is that when a teenager literally comes hurtling out of the sky with nothing to protect him by a suit of armor and falls right to your feet, it usually damn well means something. He didn’t know who this boy was, or why he was here, but he was going to keep him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fell From The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Gayestblogthesite.tumblr.com

 

He’d come out of the sky like a meteor, and for a moment, Howard had thought they were under attack, before he’d actually figured out what it was that was falling. And by then, it was already on the ground.

 

He’d been shocked, having just gotten out of a meeting with someone he didn’t actually want to talk to, and on his way back to the MIT main parking lot so he could maybe get back home before Jarvis got annoyed at him being late to get home for dinner again, and this _thing_ had just landed in front of him like a damn missile ready to take his head off.

 

It was a suit, lodged about a foot and a half into the cement. But… suits have people in them, don’t they?

 

That barely even registered in his mind before he let out a gasp, wondering if whoever was in there was still breathing.

 

He felt someone push past him and another body following them, and just barely registered Steve and an unnamed kid with dark skin kneeling next to the suit. Of fucking course, Steve always had to be the one to save the day while he just stood there like an idiot, gaping at everyone.

 

His ears were ringing from the crash, and so it took Steve calling his name twice before he even heard it. “What?”

 

Steve rolled his eyes, “There’s someone in it, Howard! I can hear them breathing, but we can’t figure out how to open it.”

 

Howard’s jaw snapped shut and he nodded, moving into the indent so he could kneel next to the darker skinned male, who was trying to move the limbs a little to see what was under it. “There’s nothing on the back, I think the release is in the chest plate.”

 

Howard nodded and tried feeling around for some sort of switch and landed on a loose lever next to the flickering light on the chest. He thought it was just a loose wire at first, and didn’t pull until he felt it again going over it once more. The chest plate cracked open and him and Steve tried pulling it apart while the other kid manually pried off the mask.

 

Steve moved onto the legs while Howard was momentarily distracted by the blood pooled in the back of the mask, frowning. He leaned in and pressed a hand to the boy’s chest –and that’s all Howard could call him, a boy, he barely looked old enough to get into college, much less wear a suit of armor with malicious intent- and let out a relived sigh when he felt it moving.

 

Steve sat back a little and nodded to the kid, “Can you keep his head stable while I pick him up? Nothing’s broken that I can tell, and I’m not sure it’s safe to wait with him still in the armor.”

 

The kid nodded and helped the oversized blonde move the body. He was smaller than a kid his age should be, and Howard felt something in his chest tighten with worry. “If the police find the armor, they’ll lock him up.”

 

Steve looked up with worry, “What?”

 

Howard nodded to the open armor at his knees, “If they find this, they’ll label him malicious and too dangerous to control, and lock him up. Steve, I’ve seen things like this before, they’ll say he works for HYDRA, or that he’s a terrorist, but really he’s just a kid with too big of a brain and bad luck, we need to hide the armor. Give him to me and you and the kid go hide the armor. It doesn’t look heavy.”

 

Steve gaped at him for a moment before kicking himself into gear when he heard faint sirens. Not close enough for anyone else to hear, but he could. He pulled Howard out of the crater and shoved him back to the ground so he could put the kid’s upper half in Howard’s lap. “And when the police asks why there’s a hole in the ground?”

 

Howard shoved a room key at Steve. It was for a lab in the eastern side of the campus, which was close and Steve knew where it was, but the other kid was already pulling the armor out of the ditch and towards the door. It was all in one piece thank god, and the two of them would get it there in no time. “I’m Howard Stark. I can _pay_ them to forget there’s a hole in the ground. Get that out of here before they see something I can’t pay them to forget.”

 

Steve nodded, and with one last glance towards the unconscious boy in Howard’s lap, headed back towards the armor, helping the other kid and they had it through the door before Howard heard the sirens pulling into the parking lot. He looked down at the body in his arms and wondered what he’d just gotten himself into.

 

***

 

Howard called Jarvis from the hospital, an odd look on his face. The police had tried questioning him, but Howard wasn’t actually in a mood to be played with right now. He’d already scared one of them off, and another was giving him funny looks from across the ICU. Howard had tried to take the call in the boy’s room, but a nurse had glared at him when he tried to sneak in there with the telephone before he shamefully went back into the nurses station with it.

 

He really needed to invent a telephone that would work without cords, but it do that he would need a… some sort of satellite… he should start working on that.

 

“Howard?”

 

Howard snapped back up from where he’d been glaring at a pen and frowned at Steve. “How’d you get here?”

 

Steve raised an eyebrow and lifted up the set of key’s Howard had shoved at him. “You gave me your keys. We took your car.”

 

We?

 

Howard looked over to see that kid again. Hmm… “Oh, who are you?”

 

The kid stood up straighter, and Howard frowned a little to see he was taller than him. Not too many people _weren’t_ taller than him, but still. “James Rhodes. Is the kid okay?”

 

Howard’s jaw clenched a little, before nodding just a little, turning back around to head into the room he’d come out of earlier. The boy was in there, with the heart monitor loud and strong in the silence. He was bandaged up, but it wasn’t so bad. “Hairline fractures on two of his ribs, internal and external bruising all over, and everything else cause by lesions. The blood on the back of his head was caused by scraping the back of it on the metal in the helmet. He might have some memory loss, but it’s not bad enough to cause permenate damage.”

 

Rhodes nodded, moving to one side of the bed, his eyes never leaving the kid’s face. He sat down in one of the two chairs in the room, and looked quite like he wasn’t planning on leaving any time soon. Howard sat in the one across from him while Steve stayed at the end of the best, his damn bleeding heart big eyes never leaving the boy on the bed.

 

“Is this going to be an issue for you, Rhodes?”

 

Rhodes turned to him with a sharp eye, “I just risked everything to help you hide evidence, that won’t effect either of you if it get out, but could lock me away for life. I could have bowed out and demanded that _you_ hide the evidence and _I_ stay with the kid, but no, I risked my ass, because I fully believe you when you say that you don’t want him to get locked up either. Do it _sound_ like it’s going to be an issue for me to keep my mouth shut?”

 

Howard tilted his head just a little. That made a lot of sense. But Steve spoke up first. “Why would you get in trouble and not us?”

 

Rhodes gave him an ‘are you serious?’ look. “You’re Captain America, and he’s Howard Stark. Like he said in that parking lot, he can _pay_ to make his issues go away, and _no one_ is going to risk upsetting America’s _sweetheart_. I’m a black kid from Philadelphia who won’t be missed by enough people to make it an issue. Out of the three of us, I’m the target, and you two are hiding behind a dozen shields at least.” Rhodes snorted, obviously amused, “Plus, I think SHIELD itself might throw a fit.”

 

Steve was bright red at the words, looking away shamefully. “Sorry.”

 

Rhodes shrugged, going back to staring at the sleeping teenager. “It’s the way the world works.”

 

“Doesn’t mean it’s right. If it helps, I’d miss you.”

 

Rhodes’ lips quirked, “Would you now?”

 

Steve nodded, sitting on the very edge of the bed. It didn’t disturb the teen in the slightest. “You helped me commit a major felony. That tends to bond people together.”

 

Howard almost actually laughed. Steve was one of the few people that could actually make him laugh other than Jarvis. He probably would have if he didn’t feel so damn worried right now.

 

“Howard, Steve?”

 

They all looked over towards the door to see Jarvis there, and Howard let out a sigh of relief. Jarvis just smiled at him and came over to stand behind Howard’s chair with a hand on his shoulder. Howard sagged back against him a little before turning to look at what Jarvis was holding in his other hand.

 

“What’s that?”

 

Jarvis handed over the oversized lunch bag to Steve, who was eyeing it like it was the best thing in the world, and Howard vaguely remembering him saying that he’d skipped lunch earlier, before shoving the other bag at Howard. “You sounded like you weren’t coming home tonight, so I packed you some stuff.”

 

Howard turned to look up at Jarvis with big eyes. Jarvis always knew exactly what he needed. “Thanks.”

 

Jarvis just smiled and squeezed Howard’s shoulder again, eyes on the figure on the bed now.

 

***

 

When he first woke up, Jarvis was the only one in the room with him.

 

He’d slept through the night and well into the next day. Steve and Howard had been dragged off to some meeting or another, and Rhodes was down in the hospital café trying to find coffee that didn’t taste like mud, so he could finish his homework.

 

Jarvis was sitting at the boy’s side, reading a book, when he heard the most heart wrenching whimper on the bed. The book went down and he caught sight of the biggest, hazy green eyes he’d ever seen. It put a wrench right into his heart to see them and he reached over for the nurse call button. “Hey.”

 

The eyes tried to focus on him, blinking a few times sluggishly before they slid away again, looking at the door where Rhodes and a nurse were both coming in.

 

Where the hell was he?

 

***

 

The boy was quiet. And… confused.

 

Howard looked over at the bed when he heard Jarvis’ quiet voice, telling the teen ‘no’ about something. He raised an eyebrow when Jarvis was carefully guiding the teen into correctly holding a fork. His hand was shaking almost unnoticeably, but Jarvis caught it with sharp eyes and stilled the teens hands again, moving the fork out of one hand and into his left. It didn’t shake this time and Howard looked surprised when the teen moved perfectly after that.

 

“Huh, seem to have forgotten a bit more than your name, haven’t you?”

 

The boy had just woken up fully that morning, barely an hour after Rhodes had left for class back at MIT, and Steve had just left ten minutes ago to pick the other up at his apartment to bring him back to the hospital. Apparently, Rhodes’ participation wasn’t finished just because the boy was awake. Howard was alright with that. The more people that liked the kid, the better his chances got of sticking around.

 

When he’d first woken up, the nurses were worried for a little bit that he’d lost the ability to talk, but after a few hours of being talked at, and mouthing words to himself, the boy had finally croaked a few of his own out, asking for something to eat. It sounded broken, and like he didn’t actually know how to get them out, but they were there, and a relief to everyone.

 

The teen gave him a funny look though, making an odd face at the hospital food, which made Jarvis chuckle just a little. “I can see that someone _did_ remember what good food tastes like, because it’s not this.”

 

The teen snorted, nodding. “It’s like my brain got wiped clean, and I’m not sure what’s what now.”

 

Jarvis nodded, not looking too upset by it, “That’s fine. We can help with anything you need to know.”

 

His brows furrowed, “Why’s that, though? I mean, the nurse said none of you know me, what do you want to help me out for?”

 

Howard moved behind Jarvis’ chair, staring at the boy with wide eyes, “Because I… didn’t like seeing you so hurt. We just want to make sure you’re okay.”

 

The teen raised his eyebrows a moment before shrugging, looking away a little bit, “It’s fine I guess. Thanks.”

 

***

 

The teenager slept a lot, and so none of them actually got to know him very well, but he still didn’t seem to be remembering anything other than how to do things.

 

“You know, you need a name.”

 

The teen gave Howard a funny look. “Well, I’m pretty sure I _have_ a name. Just can’t remember it.”

 

Howard swallowed, feeling a little guilty. “Sorry, I just mean that I would like something to refer to you as. Do you have any ideas?”

 

The teen thought about it for a minute, before turning back to Howard. They were the only ones in the room right now, and Howard was still working on his oversized bulky tablet he’d plugged into the wall. It looked a little like he was designing some sort of suit? Weird.

 

“What would you name me?”

 

Howard blinked, and looked up at him. “Excuse me?”

 

He shrugged, “Um, if you had a kid, what would you name it?”

 

Howard’s jaw clenched a little before he let out a shaky sigh. “Uh… Tony. I’d name them Anthony.”

 

The teen nodded, “That’s a nice name. Can we call me that?”

 

Howard didn’t blink, eyes locked on the teen in the bed, and he nodded. “Yes, yes of course. Tony. Your name is Tony now.”

 

Tony smiled at that, settling back against the pillows with a smile. He liked his new name.

 

Howard decided then and there, it’d take an army to pull him away from this boy, and even then, it’d better be a damn good one, because they’d have one hell of a fight on their hands.

 

***

 

“You called?”

 

Steve glared at the nurse in the doorway. “I pressed the button like ten times.”

 

She nodded, “We’re a little understaffed, and his monitors said that he was doing fine. I’m here now, what’s he need?”

 

Tony was curled up at the head of the bed, under Steve’s arm, and while he _wanted_ to yell at her a little, he wasn’t going to do that. He was America’s sweetheart, he didn’t go around yelling at people.

 

That’s what Howard was for.

 

“I think Tony has circulation issues. He’s freezing.”

 

The nurse frowned and came in, pressing a hand to Tony’s arm before her eyes went wide.

 

“Hold on just a moment.”

 

She left the room for a few minutes, and Steve was just thinking about pressing the call button again when she came back in, with two more of those stupidly thin hospital blankets, and a sweater under one arm. She handed Steve the sweater and went about, spreading the blankets on top of the one already on the bed, while Steve worked on coaxing the teen into the jumper. The teen sighed when he was in it, trying to nudge his way under Steve’s arm again, but being stopped by the nurse. He turned to pout at her and frowned at the thermometer she forced under his tongue.

 

He didn’t much like it here.

 

***

 

“I wonder where I should go when they finally let me leave.”

 

Howard and Jarvis stopped their quiet conversation and looked at Tony on the bed in shock. “What do you mean, Tony?”

 

Tony shrugged at Jarvis. He quite liked him. He was nice and brought him a lot of meals so Tony didn’t have to eat hospital food. It was nice of him.

 

“I just… I mean, I don’t have anywhere to go, do I? No money or anything like that. And then I’ll probably have lottsa hospital bills to pay, and I don’t know how I’ll do that. I just don’t know where to go. I should probably find whoever knew me before I got here, but I don’t know where to start.”

 

Jarvis and Howard looked at each other and did that silent thing where they had a conversation with their eyes. Tony thought they were lying when they said Jarvis was Howard’s butler, because butler’s don’t usually do stuff like that with their bosses. And they especially don’t kiss them like the two of them did when they thought Tony was asleep, but maybe they did… he wasn’t so sure anymore.

 

Jarvis turned back to Tony and gave him a warm smile, reaching out to put a hand on Tony’s arm. “Tony, sweetheart, we were hoping that you might come home with us. Don’t worry, Howard’s already paid your hospital bills for you, you don’t have to worry about that. We just want you to come home with us until you know where you want to go. Or just, as long as you want to be there, that’s okay with us.”

 

Tony swallowed hard, “Why do you want me to go there, though? I mean, you don’t need a kid in the house or anything.”

 

Howard moved to sit at Tony’s hip on the bed, and pulled the teen into his side. Tony was almost completely healed, and with the pain killers they still had him on, nothing about it hurt. He limped a little when he walked, and sometimes stretching hurt, but getting hugs didn’t hurt, which is good, because Jarvis and Steve seemed to like hugging him. Tony blinked in surprise though. Howard was soft and warm.

 

“We want you there, Tony, because we like you. We want to make sure you’re safe, and cared for. _That’s_ a good enough reason in my mind.”

 

Tony leaned in to bury his face in Howard’s neck with a sigh, “Okay.”

 

***

 

Howard’s house was big. Of course, he’d actually said that this was one of the smaller ones, but Tony thought it was big and pretty. Rhodey was with him right now, and was holding Tony’s bag with the minimal items that he’d acquired over the past few weeks for him. Tony had said he could hold it himself, but his left arm was still mostly a mass of bruises and what looked like road rash right now, and the other one shook a little when he tried to hold things in it. The doctors said it was just bruised tendons and not to use it very much if he could help it over the next month or so.

 

Rhodey helped him out of the back of Steve’s car and the three of them started up the cobble stone walk way. Jarvis said that this was their house they stayed in when Howard was at the MIT labs, but it was one of the smaller ones, since they didn’t use it too much. Tony thought it was nice though. There were flowers on either side of the pathway, and it had a three car garage. Rhodey gently nudged him a little when Tony paused to look at a lily and Steve was already knocking on the door.

 

When it opened, Howard was there instead of Jarvis, and Steve was smirking at his friend like he found him amusing. There were loud voices coming from inside the house. “What’s got you waiting at the door like a five year old?”

 

Howard was about to answer when he heard another yell behind him and winced. “Uh, well, Peggy is here, which means I might be hiding from her, because she always yells at me about something, and Bucky just got back from Russia, which, he’s your boyfriend, I figured he’d go to see you first, but no, apparently he wants to help Peggy yell at me. You should go in there and make them stop, because you’re the only thing in the world that could.”

 

Steve rolled his eyes and left the other three standing in the doorway, Howard still looking nervous and Rhodey with one hand at the small of Tony’s back to keep him from trying to run off at the loud noises. Howard looked back into the house and sighed, before ushering them both back out the door. “Come on, I’ll show you guys the quieter entrance. I know Peggy and Bucky probably want to meet you two, but I’d just as soon show them the door when they’re upset about something. Don’t mind them, they just get single minded about things.”

 

He lead the two of them past the flowers, which Tony trailed his fingers over with a childlike wonder in his eyes, and around the corner to the garage side of the house. At first, Rhodey thought he was going to lead them in though that, but Howard went past it, and into an open door in a room more full of windows, than walls. It was a sun room, and filled with plants, and Jarvis was already waiting for them there.

 

Howard smiled at the other man gratefully and closed the door after them. Jarvis stepped back out into the hall and pointed them off towards a set of stairs, that obviously weren’t the main stairs. They were tucked off in a back corner of the house though, and were perfect for sneaking upstairs unseen by everyone else in  the house.

 

Howard lead them down a short hallway and off into the main one, opening a door and ushering them inside. “Okay, Tony, this is your room. I know it’s not too amazing, but I figured I’d leave the decorating to you and Jarvis, I was never much good at it.”

 

The room looked nice, and the bed was big and soft looking. Rhodey set his bag down on it and Tony frowned a little. He didn’t much care how much he had, but he did wonder a little, what he’d lost in the crash. He felt a little dizzy. Rhodey was standing next to him again and Tony leaned against his side. Rhodey was nice, and also very sturdy and big. Tony liked that. Howard was frowning though. “Hey, Tony, you wanna lay down for a little bit? You look tired.”

 

Tony looked back over with wide eyes, shrugging. “Just a little bit? I don’t like sleeping so much.”

 

Howard nodded and opened up a drawer in the corner, grabbing a few items before closing it again. “That’s fine, here’s some pajamas. Everything in the room is yours and the bathroom should have everything you need as well. Will you be okay up here alone, or should I send Jarvis up?”

 

Tony looked a little overwhelmed, and it took him a bit long to answer. “Um, I think I’m fine alone? I’m just gonna change and lay down a bit.”

 

Howard nodded and ushered Rhodey back out of the room. Howard paused outside the door for a moment with a stiff look on his face, and Rhodey sighed and nudged him with an elbow. “He’ll be fine, Stark. He doesn’t remember much, if anything, from before, and he’s just overwhelmed. Maybe go a little slow for now, and he’ll adjust. Like he said, he’s just tired.”

 

Howard nodded, and turned back to the other, “Alright, your room is across the hall.”

 

Rhodey blinked at him in surprise, making an odd face as Howard opened up the door across the hall, to a fairly similar room. It was a little less sunny, since the windows faced the other way, but it was no less nice. Rhodey blinked in surprise and turned to Howard, “What? You know I’m not moving in, right?”

 

Howard rolled his eyes, “Please. Yes you are. You’re just as attached to him as the rest of us are, and you’re a student. If you don’t move in, chances of you actually getting to see him go down, and you two might eventually just stop seeing each other entirely. You’ll want to stay here. And… even if you don’t move in, Jarvis and I keep rooms here for pretty much everyone. Steve and Bucky are right next door to you, and Peggy and Angie are right next to them, because separating the four of them is almost impossible. Jarvis and I sleep on the other side of Tony. It’s fine. You don’t have to move in, just that I’d rather you stayed around, because Tony likes you.”

 

Rhodey thought for a moment about poking fun at Howard for already being so damn wrapped around Tony’s finger, but held back. Barely. He smiled though. “You’re a real softie, Stark.”

 

Howard looked away, cheeks pink and mouth in a stubborn scowl. “Shut up.”

 

Something else registered in his brain though. “Is anyone in this house straight?”

 

Howard shrugged, before turning to look back at Rhodey. “I don’t know, are you straight.”

 

Rhodey shook his head before frowning, “Tony might be.”

 

Howard shook his head, “No, no, not with the way he looks at your ass, he isn’t.”

 

Howard left the room before Rhodey could fully process that, leaving the student grinning to himself in the middle of the room.

 

***

 

Tony stared at the soft pajamas with a frown, before stripping out of the sweats that Jarvis had brought him in the hospital and sweater. It was warm in the house here, and Tony didn’t think he’d need much, but the pajamas were soft, and the tee shirt was thin and barely there. It felt good.

 

That’s not what was upsetting him though. He sat down on the edge of the bed, a few tears welling up in his eyes, when he suddenly realized, this is the first time he’d ever remembered wearing something like this.

 

He’s not saying, that he’s never had nice pajamas before, though, maybe he hadn’t, but he just couldn’t remember it if he had. It felt nice though, soft on his bruises, and didn’t scratch at any of the scars littering his body right now. It was nice.

 

He opened the hospital bag and pulled out the few books that he’d been brought, two of which were journals, on a crime novel that Steve had gotten him down at the gift shop, and the last three were advanced mathematics text books that he’d gotten him, after they all realized that Tony understood what was in Rhodey’s textbooks, better than Rhodey understood them.

 

There was a small teddy bear, that he put against the pillows on his bed to face the door, and a satin eye cover that Rhodey had gotten him when he realized that the lights were disturbing his sleep in the hospital. The teddy bear had a pair of angel wings on it, but when Rhodey had given it to him, he’d stared at them in confusion for a minute before Steve had told them what they were. At the mention of angels, he’d suddenly seemed to remember though, flushing a light red before nodding.

 

He liked the bear.

 

Everything else in the bag was some sort of clothing, and so Tony tossed it to the side of the bed for now, before lying down on top of the thick covers and closing his eyes.

 

***

 

Tony wasn’t sure if he fell asleep, or just drifted for a few hours, but when he opened his eyes, the sun was setting and he was getting hungry. He stumbled off the bed, and towards the bathroom to empty his bladder, before heading back off towards the door.

 

He opened it up and didn’t hear anyone in the hallway, so he headed back towards the staircase in the back of the house, stepping lightly on the dark wood in bare feet, trying not to make too much noise. He got to the first landing though and could hear voices towards the kitchen again. This time though, no one was yelling, and so Tony wasn’t too nervous about heading off in that direction.

 

The room was bright, and there was food that Tony could smell. It smelled good, and he almost missed the gasp coming from the big table at the front of the room, but looked over to see a woman with coiffed hair, and a man with a metal left arm staring at him.

 

Tony suddenly remembered he was only wearing a tee shirt, and looked like a mass of bruises and scars right now, and wondered if he should feel embarrassed about that. Do people normally feel shame at that sort of thing? He wasn’t sure.

 

“Tony, you’re awake.”

 

Tony turned back to where Steve was helping Jarvis bake something that smelled very good, and headed off in that direction, eager for the promise of being fed.

 

Steve reeled him in under one arm and Tony looked around the room, wondering where food was. He knew that Steve liked his cuddles, but he wanted things in his stomach right now, please and thank.

 

A plate was shaved under his nose, and Tony had a happy eager noise at the smell of steak and rice and broccoli, happily taking the plate from Rhodey and worming his way out of Steve’s hold back towards the table where the two new people that he didn’t know yet were still staring at him. He thought about ignoring them, but realized the only preferable spot at the table was next to the one with the metal arm, because he didn’t want his back facing the room for some reason. He just didn’t feel right not being able to see everyone for some reason.

 

So he set the plate down on the other side of the table from him, and dragged the chair sitting next to him over half a foot so he wasn’t right next to him, and sat down.

 

“Hi.”

 

The others were still giving him funny looks, but he just looked down at his plate and shoved a few bites of steak in his mouth.

 

The woman blinked at him a few times before smiling. “Hello.”

 

The man nodded a little back at him and went back to the playing cards that him and her were using again.

 

“So, you’re the kid Howard wants to adopt? You look worse than I did before they cut my arm off.”

 

Oh, so this one’s Bucky. Steve’s super soldier boyfriend. The other one must be Peggy.

 

Peggy reached out and smacked Bucky on the arm. “You were asleep when they cut it off, how do you know?”

 

Bucky shrugged, “They showed me a few pictures. It was gross.”

 

Tony chewed thoughtfully before swallowing. “Are you saying I look gross?”

 

Peggy looked like she was about to disagree, but Bucky just nodded solemnly. “Yeah, looking at you hurts my eyes.”

 

Steve suddenly materialized at the front of the table, startling Tony and Peggy. He looked scolding and angry at Bucky, but Tony was already laughing a little, reaching up both hands to scrub at his eyes while he tried to hold back small giggles. “Steve, I like him, he’s awesome.”

 

Steve looked between the two of them with a frown before sighing, “Well, at least you don’t hate each other.”

 

Tony nodded, putting his left arm down when it felt like he was pulling at some of the more sensitive scabs on it. He really didn’t want to open any of them up on accident again, because he did that last week, and there was blood on everything from it. Howard said that if it opened again, it probably wouldn’t bleed so much as before, but he still didn’t want to do it. They put a bunch of itchy bandages on him and he didn’t like it.

 

Tony shoved a few more bites into his mouth and made another noise of appreciation when Steve set a glass of water in front of him.

 

He liked it here already. It seemed like a nice place.

 

***

 

Howard pulled into the garage with his lips pulled into a thin line, and pressed the button to close the garage door behind him. He took a second to relax in the seat and pressed his forehead lightly against his hands on the steering wheel. Gosh, it’d been a long day.

 

To be honest, he’d been hoping to head home around noon, because of how crappy it’d been, but a sudden call to come into Stark Industries HQ had caught him by surprise, and slightly annoyed when he got a similar call, ten minutes later from Fury demanding that he come in _right that second_. He felt a little like he was being torn between two wives, and unsure which one actually needed him more at the moment. In the end, he’d moved a meeting up at SI and gone into SHIELD to deal with things, and any hope of going home early went right out the window.

 

But, better news, is that if neither of them called him in tomorrow, he was staying in bed all day long.

 

Maybe Jarvis would even-…

 

Howard ended up blinking down at his hands in shock for a second when his own thoughts were cut off by a vision of Tony’s smiling face, still torn and bruised, but still so damn sweet when he smiled at something. No, Jarvis couldn’t spend all day with him tomorrow, because they had a confused teenager living with them in the house right now, and Howard wasn’t ready to field questions on why exactly they are spending all day together in bed, if Tony didn’t already realize it himself.

 

Oh Christ, it’s like he had a son, and didn’t want to give him the talk, because his son was pretty much the equivalent of a five year old right now.

 

Tony spent his days at home with Jarvis since getting out of the hospital, and sometimes with Rhodey –who had totally moved in, Howard had _so_ called that- and Steve, but Jarvis seemed to be the one of them that Tony had attached himself to, clinging to him like a limpet all day long. Jarvis had him working his way through math text books a day, and him and Howard still had yet to figure out if either Tony was so damn smart, he could concur any math he found in a day, or if he’d honestly been that smart before losing his memory.

 

Howard was going to guess that if he had built that suit himself –which Howard has asked him about, and even taken him to see a few times, but Tony had said it make no sense to him on why he would build it- then he probably had been this smart before.

 

Jarvis was staying at home with him, playing catch-up with figuring out where Tony was education wise, and making sure he was getting better.

 

Tony seemed to struggle just the littlest bit in subjects like language, and he wasn’t as high in level in science as math, but damned if he wasn’t catching up at a horrifying rate.

 

Howard had the feeling that this kid was, or at least, would be, smarter than he was, and he wasn’t sure if he would proud, or a little scared.

 

He thinks he’s proud.

 

He looked up when he heard a door open, and found Jarvis standing there, giving him a funny look with his arms crossed. Howard just smiled back and grabbed his suitcase before getting out of the car. Jarvis just smiled at him and didn’t let the scientist pass until Howard pressed a kiss to Jarvis’ lips, making both of them grin in amusement.

 

Tony was sitting in the living room on the floor, Steve sitting next to him while guiding the teenager into drawing a flower.

 

Okay, maybe art was not his forte, but Howard had the upmost confidence that one day Tony might be able to draw a flower that doesn’t look like it’s had acid sprayed all over it. Maybe.

 

“You’re back!”

 

Tony looked up at him with a big smile, no longer leaning dejectedly against the soft couch behind him, but excitable and happy.

 

He was looking better too. Most of his bruising had faded to a less shocking level, and his arm wasn’t in constant danger of ripping open to pour it’s blood all over everything anymore. Though, it still was the most banged up part of him.

 

Howard just smiled at the teen and moved to sit next to him on the floor, pressing a kiss to the messy crown of Tony’s head. That damn hair, not even Jarvis could tame it. That had been a shocking discovery.

 

Howard leaned forward and nudged the picture, “What’s this, you’re making? It looks amazing.”

 

Tony snorted, “You’re a bad liar. My arm is too shaky to draw properly, but Steve’s trying to help me get my strength in it up, now that it’s not constantly bleeding. I’m not as good as we’d hoped I’d be.”

 

Howard shrugged, “Oh come on, it’s not that bad. Art is all about perception, right? It looks like a flower after acid rain, and if you really tried, I bet you could make it look amazing. Just because the lines are shaky, doesn’t mean it can’t turn into something nice.”

 

Tony gave him a funny look for a few second, before looking back at the drawing that Steve was scrutinizing on the table, and shrugged. “I guess.”

 

Jarvis just left the room to start dinner with a smile on his face. Howard was a very good father.

 

***

 

Rhodey was leaning back against the couch with a notebook in his lap, a half filled page full of equations that made his head spin just the littlest bit. Tony was sitting on the floor in front of the couch, having been helping him with his homework.

 

Mathematics was pretty much the only thing that Rhodey completely trusted him to help out with. Last week, Tony tried to convince him that Elvis wasn’t really dead and it had all been a hoax. Rhodey had politely asked Howard to put a parental block on conspiracy theory sites after that.

 

Jarvis came into the room with a plate of cheese and crackers, setting it in front of the two on the coffee table before leaving with the same quiet air that he’d entered. Rhodey honestly didn’t know how he did it. He was all but married to Stark, and he still wanted to be the one that took care of everything in the house. If it had been Rhodey shacked up with a billionaire, he’d be lying back and drinking mai tai’s on a beach somewhere. Then again, his own mother had been a stay at home parent for four years before going back to her job, and if money hadn’t been something they actually needed to work to have, she would have stayed home with him much longer. Maybe it was a sort of caregivers need to-

 

Rhodey was brought out of his thoughts with a sudden squawk when he felt a mouth on his, and a tongue suddenly in it too. And damn, was that Tony’s wandering hand that he felt on his stomach?

 

Rhodey reached down and grabbed a hold of the hand so it wouldn’t move any further, gentle so as not to flare any bruises, but firm to keep it in place, but he didn’t try to move Tony’s mouth off of his, letting one hand go to the back of Tony’s neck, a relatively unscathed part of him, and used it to keep the teenager in place while returning the kiss just as good as he got it.

 

When they finally pulled apart, mostly for air, Tony’s lips were red and bruised, and there was a slight coughing sound from the door.

 

Rhodey felt his cheeks heat up at the amused look the Howard was giving them from the hall door archway, and Tony was burning up bright red, hiding his face in the couch right next to Rhodey’s chest.

 

“Um, welcome home?”

 

Howard gave them a stern look and a double finger point before heading towards the kitchen, and Rhodey nearly died right there of the idea of him telling Jarvis.

 

Howard might have looked amused, but he had no doubt that Jarvis would kick his ass for touching Tony, you know, even though Tony touched first.

 

Tony lifted his head off the couch, still red and embarrassed. “Sorry… you looked really pretty sitting there, though.”

 

Rhodey just about melted under those big green eyes, leaning in to press one last peck to his lips before going back to his notebook. “You look pretty doing anything.”

 

***

 

“You two should just get married already.”

 

Jarvis and Howard blinked at each other in surprise. It was just them and Tony right now, since Rhodey was off in a class, and Steve wasn’t _always_ there, but they were all sitting outside in the sunlight and eating lunch together on the back patio. It was nice.

 

“Why should we get married, Tony?”

 

Tony shrugged, “You both pretty much already are, but if you get married, it’ll make things easier. Miss Maria was talking with Peggy and Angie the other day about you guys wanting to adopt me, but not sure how to go about it. If you get married, you can both adopt me at once and it won’t be an issue.”

 

Neither of them actually pointed out that their actual issue with adopting Tony, came with not knowing how to ask him, but neither of them cared. He wanted them to adopt him, and that’s all that really mattered.

 

Howard and Jarvis had been together for so long, that marriage had seemed like it didn’t even really matter, but Tony was right, it would make this go _so_ much easier if they were. Howard looked over at Jarvis, who quirked a smile and him and shrugged. Howard’s face broke out into a stupidly large grin. “Okay, I think we’re getting married.”

 

Tony made a soft happy noise on the other side of the table, mouth full of some sort of cheesecake pastry that Jarvis had made, but no less excitable.

 

***

 

The wedding was in June.

 

The adoption as that August, directly after the courts had ruled that not enough information was known about Tony for the doctors to know his exact birthdate, and that because of it, a new one was needed.

 

Of course, you can’t exactly give a person a new birth certificate, but you _can_ give them US citizenship and declare them a ward of the state if under the age of 18. Of course, when they found Tony, he was decided to be at _least_ 17 back at the hospital, and that’s been about half a year ago now, which means that it wasn’t that hard for Howard to bully the judge into letting him and Jarvis adopt the boy.

 

They had a party for it and everything. To celebrate, Anthony Edward Stark.

**Author's Note:**

> Gayestblogthesite.tumblr.com


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